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UTSAV GANDHI

campus@technewsiit.com

TechNews | Tuesday, lanuary 29, 2013

Rock Climbing Club conquers refurbished grain silo

By Dan Zweig
STAFF WRITER

In Bloomington, Illinois; a
company named Upper Limits has
reepurposed an old grain silo into
something a little unexpected: a
rock climbing gym.

After cutting doorways into
the base of the silos through one
foot of solid concrete, and drilling
thousands of holes on the inside
to attach different climbing holds,
they transformed these 70 foot
storage containers into one of the
tallest climbing gyms in the coun
try. It has been a few years, but the
gym is also known for creating gie
ant ice waterfalls off the side of the
silos so ice climbers can practice
ascending with ice axes in a more
controlled environment.

With such an early three
day weekend this semester some
students decided they would take
advantage of the time off and ref
laxed homework load to make the
trip out to visit the gym. Five stue
dents; Danielle Kreie, Dan Zweig,
Kate Manwaring, Jessica Carlson,
and Maraya Morgan, took the two
hour drive from Chicago out to
Bloomington, Illinois to experie
ence this gym over Martin Luther
King weekend. For a steep $18 per
person, the group climbed for over
four hours with swarms of Central
Illinois children and other aspiring
climbers.

Most routes were rated be,
tween 5.7 and 5.11, with added plus
or minus depending on difliculty.
According to the HT climbers, the
routes were noticeably different
than any in the gyms near Chicago,
which makes sense as each gym’s
routes are set by different climbers.

However, these routes
seemed easier to climb in general,
and difliculty didn’t come from
complexity of the route and its
moves, but from distance between
holds and their awkwardness. The
gym also was extremely strict about
safety, with patrolling staffinspecte
ing climbers every few minutes; If
anyone climbing was caught break,
ing a basic safety rule the climber
and belayer were each charged $10.

The llT Rock Climbing
Club tends to visit two gyms per
week, when their budget allows,
and climbs outdoors maybe four
or five times during the semese
ter depending on the weather and
scheduling conflicts. The gyms
within reach of the university that
do not require gym memberships
are Climb On, Vertical Endeavors,

and Hidden Peak. Each gym offers
a different experience and different
crowd of climbers.

At Climb On, a friendly
gym in Homewood, 45 minutes
south of Chicago, climbers are
introduced to a medium sized
gym with about twelve top ropes
to climb, and hardly any lasting
crowd of climbers.

Most routes have historie
cally been harder, mostly 5.10s,
5.11s, and 5.12s, but their most re,
cent route setters have provided an
assortment of 5.8s and 5.9s. Still,
however, we would not consider it
the best beginner’s gym.

Vertical Endeavors, or VE,
is 45 minutes west in Warrenville,
and is a feature of an enormous
gym called Lifetime Fitness. VE
offers climbers dozens oftop ropes
including an entire section of aue
tomatic belays where climbers can
safely climb without a belayer or
spotter below.

The gym is set up for large
crowds and a variety of climbing,
with enough routes of all ratings to
entertain any level of climber; from
the beginner 5.6 climber to the ad,
vanced 5.12d lead climber.

The third gym is Hidden
Peak, tucked away in a basement of
an gymnastics studio near the in,
tersection of Chicago and Milwaue
kee, this gym is by far the closest of
the club’s favorites. This gym offers
no top rope climbing, only boule
dering, and a climber will never
find himself more than a few feet
off the mats and crash pads.

This gym is small, compact,
and popular, with dozens of routes
over top one another and a crowd
of climbers, elbow to elbow waiting
for routes to open up. Some of the
best climbers in the country have
trained at this gym, and there is
always a group of advanced climb,
ers, hanging from holds that most
climbers find impossible to grab.
Overall this gym is meant for bet,
ter climbers to hone their skills and
technique, although the newest set
of routes and rocks installed caters
well to all difficulties of climbers.

And then of course, some,
times, when the HT clubs cannot
fund or program enough events,
the students must find entertain,
ment for themselves. On most
occasions that means taking ad,
vantage of the city of Chicago, but
sometimes it means taking ran,
dom, spontaneous trips to rock
climbing gyms two hours away for
a new and unique climbing experie
ence.

 

Photo :0 urtesy ofDari Zwefig